Bear Bull Blackfoot

This drawing of Bear Bull illustrates an ancient method of arranging the hair by twisting it into a coil projecting away from the forehead. This technique also displayed his status as a medicine or holy man.

The Blackfoot were a powerful, nomadic buffalo hunting society of the northern plains with most of their settlements in Montana, Idaho, and Alberta Canada. In the Late 1800’s many were massacred and the remaining people fled over the border into Canada, or were rounded up onto reservations in the United States.

Gall Lakota

Gall was born in South Dakota in 1840. A member of the Hunkpapa Lakota, he was recognized as an accomplished warrior in his late teens and became a chief in his twenties. He also developed a reputation as a war leader and strategist and played a significant role in 1876 in the defeat of General George A. Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn where he and Crazy Horse successfully drove back Major Marcus Reno and his men.

As a result of the deaths of General Custer and the entire 7th Calvary, the United States Army increased their troops in the area, driving Sitting Bull, Gall, and their tribes into Canada. Once there, the Canadian government forced them to return to the United States where they surrendered in 1881 and were relocated to the Standing Rock Reservation.

Quanah Parker Comanche

Quanah Parker was a Comanche chief, a leader in the Native American church, and the last leader of the Quahadi Band before they surrendered to the United States army and went to a reservation in Indian territory.

He was the son of Comanche chief, Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, a European American, who had been captured at the age of nine and adopted into the tribe. Quanah also led his people on the reservation, where he became a wealthy rancher and influential in Comanche and European American society.

Two Hatchet Kiowa

The Kiowa, traditionally among the most warlike of the plains tribes, lived in the early 18th century around The Black Hills and upper Yellowstone River. They were allies of the Crow and enemies of the Cheyenne and Lakota.

About 1850 they moved to Eastern Colorado and Western Oklahoma where they were friendly with the Arapahoe. Most of the existing Kiowa living today are still in Oklahoma.

Weasaw Shoshoni

The Shoshoni tribe occupied territory in California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming, although the majority seemed to be settled in the Snake River area in Idaho.

Historical documents from the Lewis and Clark expedition often refer to the Shoshoni as the “Snake Indians”; the actual name “Shoshoni” means “The Valley People”. They were few in numbers, with their total population somewhere around 8,000.

The most famous Shoshoni in American History is Sacajawea of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and Chief Washakie.